Criminal Probe in Alaska Airlines Flight 261 Crash: an inquiry into the falsification of maintenance records at Alaska Airlines’ Oakland CA facility predated the disaster by more than a year. If safety were more important than profit, it would seem that publicizing substantial suspicions that an airline is lying about factors relevant to the airworthiness of its aircraft would be crucial!
Monthly Archives: March 2000
New paleontological finds in China suggest ancestral primate was Tom-Thumb-sized.
$99 Netpliance I-opener Internet appliances sold out nationwide after an electronics engineer in
Las Vegas figured out
how to tweak the $99
terminal for an additional $100 so that it
works like a fancy PC.
Furor over British proposal to detain non-criminals with personality disorders:
“UK government proposals to detain dangerous people who have a severe personality disorder but no
criminal conviction should be applied to individuals only when an assessment predicts that it is almost
certain that they will commit a very serious criminal offence, a report from a cross party committee
of MPs said this week.” [British Medical Journal]
Thoughtful About “Virtual Voting”:
“…it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Arizonans with
home Internet access enjoyed a tremendous voting advantage
in this primary. Yes, unwired Arizonans were encouraged to
vote at libraries and other community centers scattered around
the state. But essentially none did. Several librarians told me
that not a single person came to vote by Net during the
four-day remote-voting period. By the party’s own estimate,
90 percent of the Internet votes were cast by people voting
from home or work—and that population is disproportionately
white…” [Slate]
Thoughtful About “Virtual Voting”:
“…it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Arizonans with
home Internet access enjoyed a tremendous voting advantage
in this primary. Yes, unwired Arizonans were encouraged to
vote at libraries and other community centers scattered around
the state. But essentially none did. Several librarians told me
that not a single person came to vote by Net during the
four-day remote-voting period. By the party’s own estimate,
90 percent of the Internet votes were cast by people voting
from home or work—and that population is disproportionately
white…” [Slate]
Bill Joy: Why the future doesn’t need us.
“Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics,
genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to
make humans an endangered species.” [Wired]
[Salon:] Big Bouncer is watching you. “To get into the Alcazar Pleasure Village, a
nightclub in the Netherlands, you’ll have to make it past more
than just a velvet rope. A vigilant “cyber-bouncer” will scan
your fingerprint and face, refusing to let you in if you’re a
known troublemaker or waving you through if your file comes
up clean.”
Bill Joy: Why the future doesn’t need us.
“Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics,
genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to
make humans an endangered species.” [Wired]
[Salon:] Big Bouncer is watching you. “To get into the Alcazar Pleasure Village, a
nightclub in the Netherlands, you’ll have to make it past more
than just a velvet rope. A vigilant “cyber-bouncer” will scan
your fingerprint and face, refusing to let you in if you’re a
known troublemaker or waving you through if your file comes
up clean.”
One of the most spectacular business flameouts ever.
Research shows why sex is better than asexual reproduction.
One of the most spectacular business flameouts ever.
Research shows why sex is better than asexual reproduction.
“There seems to be no
critical culture in America today. A critical culture is one that struggles actively over how human beings should live and what our
life means. Most of us can remember living in the critical culture of the sixties-a few of us can even remember the critical culture
of the thirties-and we can feel the difference. When a critical culture breaks down or wears out or fades away, sources of joy dry
up. What makes this happen? Why has it happened now? Is the loss permanent? Or are there traces, fragments, intimations of a new
critical culture just around the corner? Where might it come from? How can it come together? Is there anything people like us can
do to help it come?” [Marshall Berman writes in Dissent]
Musical Ballots (washingtonpost.com): Would it make a differennce to your Presidential choice to know what kind of music each candidate listens to? [Washington Post]
Cultural revolution: women allowed onstage in Iran for the first time since 1979. [The Globe and Mail]
Mapping the Cab Driver’s Brain: The posterior hippocampus of London cabbies hypertrophies in proportion to their years of driving a cab. This area, thought to be involved in memory functioning, probably stores the detailed navigational information they learn on the job.
“There seems to be a definite relationship between the navigating they do as a taxi driver and the brain changes,” researcher Eleanor Maguire told the BBC.
Lilly Files for Approval of Once-Weekly Prozac. Faced with declining sales from competing SSRIs, and the looming expiration of its patent rights in 2003, this is one of several slightly different formulations of fluoxetine (Prozac), the first of the new generation of antidepressants, that Eli Lilly proposes to market.
[Thanks, Abby; no, really!] Tennessee Farm Is Laboratory of Human Flesh
Valdis Krebs has updated his fascinating Internet Industry Map – Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, Technology Development, Partnerships with network metrics and printability.
“There seems to be no
critical culture in America today. A critical culture is one that struggles actively over how human beings should live and what our
life means. Most of us can remember living in the critical culture of the sixties-a few of us can even remember the critical culture
of the thirties-and we can feel the difference. When a critical culture breaks down or wears out or fades away, sources of joy dry
up. What makes this happen? Why has it happened now? Is the loss permanent? Or are there traces, fragments, intimations of a new
critical culture just around the corner? Where might it come from? How can it come together? Is there anything people like us can
do to help it come?” [Marshall Berman writes in Dissent]
Musical Ballots (washingtonpost.com): Would it make a differennce to your Presidential choice to know what kind of music each candidate listens to? [Washington Post]
Cultural revolution: women allowed onstage in Iran for the first time since 1979. [The Globe and Mail]
Mapping the Cab Driver’s Brain: The posterior hippocampus of London cabbies hypertrophies in proportion to their years of driving a cab. This area, thought to be involved in memory functioning, probably stores the detailed navigational information they learn on the job.
“There seems to be a definite relationship between the navigating they do as a taxi driver and the brain changes,” researcher Eleanor Maguire told the BBC.
Lilly Files for Approval of Once-Weekly Prozac. Faced with declining sales from competing SSRIs, and the looming expiration of its patent rights in 2003, this is one of several slightly different formulations of fluoxetine (Prozac), the first of the new generation of antidepressants, that Eli Lilly proposes to market.
[Thanks, Abby; no, really!] Tennessee Farm Is Laboratory of Human Flesh
Valdis Krebs has updated his fascinating Internet Industry Map – Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, Technology Development, Partnerships with network metrics and printability.
Take 2: A Photo Archive of City Streets: The New York Public Library embarks on a project to create an archive of photographs of nearly every street in the five boroughs of New York City. (Does this remind anyone of Geoff Nicholson’s Bleeding London?)
Newest influence-mongering trend: get the President’s ear by contributing to his wife’s Senate campaign. Surprising?
More media consolidation.
Both Slate and The New York Times focus on what the Pope didn’t say in his apology for the sins of the Catholic Church.
New York Times: ‘Americans have become used to hearing nutty talk from
leaders of the National Rifle Association. But Sunday’s
outrageous assertion by the group’s executive vice president,
Wayne LaPierre, that President Clinton is “willing to accept a
certain level of killing to further his political agenda”
deserves special condemnation.
Mr. LaPierre made his sick suggestion that the president
relishes having gun tragedies to exploit in an interview on
ABC’s “This Week.” He was there to push the N.R.A.’s
demonstrably false line that the nation already has enough
gun laws on the books if only the administration would
enforce them.’
Europe is in love with Short Message Service. [New York Times]
Microsoft to Back a Browser Keyword System. Companies pay RealNames Corp. hefty fees to lock up ownership of keywords; you type a keyword into your browser and are magically taken to the site that owns the keyword! RealNames gets revenue from every referral to the corporate sites as well. Microsoft takes 20% of KeyNames, which has just filed for an IPO.
This site gushes about the goings-on at some of the hippest night spots on Sunset Boulevard.
“Who is Gladwell kidding?
Scientists have been harping on
so-called nonlinear effects for decades. Nonlinearity is the basis
of catastrophe theory, chaos, complexity, self-organized
criticality, punctuated equilibrium, and other scientific fads.
Everyone knows about the butterfly effect, which holds that a
butterfly flitting through Iowa can trigger a cascade of
meteorological events culminating in a monsoon in India.
Gladwell cites none of this work, and understandably so. His
utopian message is that by manipulating tipping points we can cut
down on crime, reduce teen-age smoking, and sell lots of
sneakers without massive efforts. But the lesson of nonlinear
research is that many phenomena are unpredictable, and
especially the complex social phenomena upon which Gladwell
focuses. Our culture is awash in potential tipping points. When we
try to tip events in one direction, they activate other tipping points
and careen down the wrong path. This is the law of unintended
consequences, about which you have written so eloquently, Ed.” [Slate]
Take 2: A Photo Archive of City Streets: The New York Public Library embarks on a project to create an archive of photographs of nearly every street in the five boroughs of New York City. (Does this remind anyone of Geoff Nicholson’s Bleeding London?)
Newest influence-mongering trend: get the President’s ear by contributing to his wife’s Senate campaign. Surprising?
More media consolidation.
Both Slate and The New York Times focus on what the Pope didn’t say in his apology for the sins of the Catholic Church.
New York Times: ‘Americans have become used to hearing nutty talk from
leaders of the National Rifle Association. But Sunday’s
outrageous assertion by the group’s executive vice president,
Wayne LaPierre, that President Clinton is “willing to accept a
certain level of killing to further his political agenda”
deserves special condemnation.
Mr. LaPierre made his sick suggestion that the president
relishes having gun tragedies to exploit in an interview on
ABC’s “This Week.” He was there to push the N.R.A.’s
demonstrably false line that the nation already has enough
gun laws on the books if only the administration would
enforce them.’
Europe is in love with Short Message Service. [New York Times]
Microsoft to Back a Browser Keyword System. Companies pay RealNames Corp. hefty fees to lock up ownership of keywords; you type a keyword into your browser and are magically taken to the site that owns the keyword! RealNames gets revenue from every referral to the corporate sites as well. Microsoft takes 20% of KeyNames, which has just filed for an IPO.
This site gushes about the goings-on at some of the hippest night spots on Sunset Boulevard.
“Who is Gladwell kidding?
Scientists have been harping on
so-called nonlinear effects for decades. Nonlinearity is the basis
of catastrophe theory, chaos, complexity, self-organized
criticality, punctuated equilibrium, and other scientific fads.
Everyone knows about the butterfly effect, which holds that a
butterfly flitting through Iowa can trigger a cascade of
meteorological events culminating in a monsoon in India.
Gladwell cites none of this work, and understandably so. His
utopian message is that by manipulating tipping points we can cut
down on crime, reduce teen-age smoking, and sell lots of
sneakers without massive efforts. But the lesson of nonlinear
research is that many phenomena are unpredictable, and
especially the complex social phenomena upon which Gladwell
focuses. Our culture is awash in potential tipping points. When we
try to tip events in one direction, they activate other tipping points
and careen down the wrong path. This is the law of unintended
consequences, about which you have written so eloquently, Ed.” [Slate]
Today is the anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s (1922-69) birth, Charlie Parker’s (1921-55) death, and Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman’s wedding (1969).
Sociologists launch online journal to study the mundane: ‘”The idea is to sort of step back from everything that we take for granted and say, `What’s really going on here, anyway?”‘ said William Roy of the
University of California, Los Angeles. “A fish is the last creature to ever notice water.” (…)
The idea sprang from a 1998 article published in the journal Sociological Theory. Wayne Brekhus of the University of Missouri complained that there were
many journals devoted to extreme behavior but nothing concentrating on the mundane. (…) Brekhus’ half-joking call for a journal to study the mundane caught the attention of Schaffer and Orleans. They sent out e-mail notices six months ago
requesting papers and launched the Web site, www.mundanebehavior.org .
They received a handful of e-mails wondering if it was a hoax. They also got three times as many submissions as they could use for the debut issue.’ The table of contents from the first issue includes:
Maine
Presentation
Today is the anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s (1922-69) birth, Charlie Parker’s (1921-55) death, and Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman’s wedding (1969).
I’m sure everybody knows by now about the first binding web election, sort of.
Sociologists launch online journal to study the mundane: ‘”The idea is to sort of step back from everything that we take for granted and say, `What’s really going on here, anyway?”‘ said William Roy of the
University of California, Los Angeles. “A fish is the last creature to ever notice water.” (…)
The idea sprang from a 1998 article published in the journal Sociological Theory. Wayne Brekhus of the University of Missouri complained that there were
many journals devoted to extreme behavior but nothing concentrating on the mundane. (…) Brekhus’ half-joking call for a journal to study the mundane caught the attention of Schaffer and Orleans. They sent out e-mail notices six months ago
requesting papers and launched the Web site, www.mundanebehavior.org .
They received a handful of e-mails wondering if it was a hoax. They also got three times as many submissions as they could use for the debut issue.’ The table of contents from the first issue includes:
Maine
Presentation
I’m sure everybody knows by now about the first binding web election, sort of.
The disclosure of several new heretofore secret Justice Department memos [New York Times editorial] shows the lengths to which Janet Reno went to protect Al Gore and other senior administration officials from a thorough-going independent inquiry into alleged campaign finance improprieties. And all the time you watched the administration fretting about the impeachment inquiry, its senior members were probably laughing up their sleeve that that’s all the country was agonizing over. And now the only choice you have beyond Dubya is their poster boy?? (It’s getting to that quadrennial point where I begin to toy with the idea of emigrating again…but where?)
U.S. Sets Another Record for Winter Warmth: the average winter temperature in the 48 contiguous states was the warmest in 105 years. Twenty of the last thirty years have been above the century’s average; and each of the past three years has seen a briefer warmer winter than the last. [New York Times]
The disclosure of several new heretofore secret Justice Department memos [New York Times editorial] shows the lengths to which Janet Reno went to protect Al Gore and other senior administration officials from a thorough-going independent inquiry into alleged campaign finance improprieties. And all the time you watched the administration fretting about the impeachment inquiry, its senior members were probably laughing up their sleeve that that’s all the country was agonizing over. And now the only choice you have beyond Dubya is their poster boy?? (It’s getting to that quadrennial point where I begin to toy with the idea of emigrating again…but where?)
U.S. Sets Another Record for Winter Warmth: the average winter temperature in the 48 contiguous states was the warmest in 105 years. Twenty of the last thirty years have been above the century’s average; and each of the past three years has seen a briefer warmer winter than the last. [New York Times]
A searing, riveting film I just watched: Bryan Singer’s 1998 Apt Pupil with Ian McKellen as the ex-Nazi war criminal next door and Brad Renfro as the high school student who attempts to control him with the knowledge of his identity. Except for a spluttering performance by the risible David Schwimmer…
Consider that if you lived in Japan you too might empathize with this woman. [Washington Post]
Someone pointed me to this gentleman’s main webpage, which documents his collection of chopsticks. However, the real gem is this sidelight, the Gallery of the Absurd: “This site is dedicated to exposing absurdity hiding in such obvious places that nobody seems to notice!…These are all my own photographs* taken in public places mostly in the Boston area. They are 100% real and
not digitally manipulated. I’ve been capturing images like this for many years, to document things that strike
me as odd or bizarre, or just plain stupid.”
Is your computer possessed? [from Honeyguide]
Dr. Laura Backs Off Gay Comments. Could she see some jeopardy to the Paramount cash cow from the GLAD-driven protest movement she has the nerve to characterize as “fascist”?
Chrissie Hynde and three others were arrested for protesting in the window of a Gap clothing
store against what she said was the clothing chain’s use of leather from cows slaughtered in India, where cattle are
sacred. Despite the company’s claims that the “Made in India” labels in its leather jackets did not mean that the leather originates in India, Hynde stated “India does not import leather, and it is the largest exporter of leather in the world….So it seems highly unlikely that the Gap buys its leather from America, where the slaughterhouse practices are considered humane
and legal, and send the leather to India, stitch up the jacket and send it back to America.”
PETA director Dan Mathews said Gap was buying its leather ”from a black market … where it’s illegal to kill cows. And they have
assumed no responsibility.”
Clues to sleep disorders may lie in the flies: Recent research by Dr. Giulio Tononi and colleagues at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego suggests that flies must rest to perform their biological functions, like higher animals. The rest periods of flies share important attributes with mammalian (and human) sleep. This finding provides ‘…“the opportunity to employ fly genetics to figure out the function of sleep and
to develop new, safe drugs for improving sleep as well as vigilance,” Tononi explained.
The fruit fly apparently “shares a sophisticated brain function with us,” Tononi said. “However, the
difference between what goes on in the brain of a fly and a human when they are asleep, is probably as
large as the difference between what they think when they are awake,” he added wryly.’
Remember this: chew vigorously![New Scientist]
Unheeded warnings: Predictions by a climatologist from the University of Zululand in South Africa of floods in Mozambique were ignored. Flood damage could have been reduced if dam managers in the region had begun to empty their reservoirs sooner.
A searing, riveting film I just watched: Bryan Singer’s 1998 Apt Pupil with Ian McKellen as the ex-Nazi war criminal next door and Brad Renfro as the high school student who attempts to control him with the knowledge of his identity. Except for a spluttering performance by the risible David Schwimmer…
Consider that if you lived in Japan you too might empathize with this woman. [Washington Post]
Someone pointed me to this gentleman’s main webpage, which documents his collection of chopsticks. However, the real gem is this sidelight, the Gallery of the Absurd: “This site is dedicated to exposing absurdity hiding in such obvious places that nobody seems to notice!…These are all my own photographs* taken in public places mostly in the Boston area. They are 100% real and
not digitally manipulated. I’ve been capturing images like this for many years, to document things that strike
me as odd or bizarre, or just plain stupid.”
Is your computer possessed? [from Honeyguide]
Dr. Laura Backs Off Gay Comments. Could she see some jeopardy to the Paramount cash cow from the GLAD-driven protest movement she has the nerve to characterize as “fascist”?
Chrissie Hynde and three others were arrested for protesting in the window of a Gap clothing
store against what she said was the clothing chain’s use of leather from cows slaughtered in India, where cattle are
sacred. Despite the company’s claims that the “Made in India” labels in its leather jackets did not mean that the leather originates in India, Hynde stated “India does not import leather, and it is the largest exporter of leather in the world….So it seems highly unlikely that the Gap buys its leather from America, where the slaughterhouse practices are considered humane
and legal, and send the leather to India, stitch up the jacket and send it back to America.”
PETA director Dan Mathews said Gap was buying its leather ”from a black market … where it’s illegal to kill cows. And they have
assumed no responsibility.”
Clues to sleep disorders may lie in the flies: Recent research by Dr. Giulio Tononi and colleagues at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego suggests that flies must rest to perform their biological functions, like higher animals. The rest periods of flies share important attributes with mammalian (and human) sleep. This finding provides ‘…“the opportunity to employ fly genetics to figure out the function of sleep and
to develop new, safe drugs for improving sleep as well as vigilance,” Tononi explained.
The fruit fly apparently “shares a sophisticated brain function with us,” Tononi said. “However, the
difference between what goes on in the brain of a fly and a human when they are asleep, is probably as
large as the difference between what they think when they are awake,” he added wryly.’
Remember this: chew vigorously![New Scientist]
Unheeded warnings: Predictions by a climatologist from the University of Zululand in South Africa of floods in Mozambique were ignored. Flood damage could have been reduced if dam managers in the region had begun to empty their reservoirs sooner.
I found it hard to believe that Morphine would survive Mark Sandman’s death, but it appears to be reborn, joyously.
I found it hard to believe that Morphine would survive Mark Sandman’s death, but it appears to be reborn, joyously.
Some antidepressants change rat brain cells. In animal studies, high doese of SSRI antidepressants (such as Prozac) cause damage to brain cells similar to that produced by Ecstasy (MDMA).
Abortions rise 20 percent in Britain after millennium party season, group says
“A British family planning organization noted a 20 percent increase in the number
of abortions during January and February after the intense millennium party season.”
Time Cube
“I will give $1,000.00 to any person who can disprove 4 days in each
earth rotation. It’s
a pity that religious and academic word is a
crime against Nature and enslaves Children.
4-cornered Truth is ineffable by man or god.
Until Word is Cornered, all Math is Fiction.”
The Decline and Fall: “Baby Bank” for Unwanted Newborns
“HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Social workers in Hamburg have opened a controversial “baby bank”
where new mothers can leave their unwanted newborns.
The center, which is near the “Reeperbahn” red light district, was set up to reduce the number of
newborns abandoned on the streets of the city.
A woman can anonymously pass her child through a “letter box” and into a crib. An alarm alerts staff
that a new child has been left.”
Some antidepressants change rat brain cells. In animal studies, high doese of SSRI antidepressants (such as Prozac) cause damage to brain cells similar to that produced by Ecstasy (MDMA).
Abortions rise 20 percent in Britain after millennium party season, group says
“A British family planning organization noted a 20 percent increase in the number
of abortions during January and February after the intense millennium party season.”
Time Cube
“I will give $1,000.00 to any person who can disprove 4 days in each
earth rotation. It’s
a pity that religious and academic word is a
crime against Nature and enslaves Children.
4-cornered Truth is ineffable by man or god.
Until Word is Cornered, all Math is Fiction.”
The Decline and Fall: “Baby Bank” for Unwanted Newborns
“HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) – Social workers in Hamburg have opened a controversial “baby bank”
where new mothers can leave their unwanted newborns.
The center, which is near the “Reeperbahn” red light district, was set up to reduce the number of
newborns abandoned on the streets of the city.
A woman can anonymously pass her child through a “letter box” and into a crib. An alarm alerts staff
that a new child has been left.”
God, the Devil and Bob: Okay, so we’re a little puzzled, but not at all unhappy, that God is the spitting image of Jerry Garcia. But the James Garner voice doesn’t quite work. Update: Not ready for primetime with Idaho, Mississippi and other NBC affiliates.
God, the Devil and Bob: Okay, so we’re a little puzzled, but not at all unhappy, that God is the spitting image of Jerry Garcia. But the James Garner voice doesn’t quite work. Update: Not ready for primetime with Idaho, Mississippi and other NBC affiliates.
Tragic Irony: Psychiatrist dies after alleged attack by her daughter: Dr Katherine Thomsen-Hall, a distinguished forensic psychiatrist at UMass Medical School (where I taught until 1994) was allegedly murdered by her 16-year-old daughter Valerie on Sunday night. The girl apparently is in treatment for bipolar disorder; friends of the family are quoted as reporting that there was little more than normal tension between mother and daughter, although the police had been called to their home once previously after an altercation. Dr Thomsen-Hall worked treating the often violent inmates of the Framingham Women’s Prison, Massachusetts’ only facility for the detention of female convicts. She had given up a thriving private practice and mental health advocacy work in Little Rock to attend a one-year forensic psychiatry fellowship at UMass in 1997, and then decided to remain on the faculty.
I was impressed by something that receives scant notice in the news story. A friend commented that Valerie had “appeared a little mellow. She told me she was on a new prescription that was supposed to keep her calm.” One of my ongoing concerns and teaching points in my work is that psychiatrists do not more readily recognize the disinhibiting properties of the benzodiazepine anti-anxiety sedative medications (e.g. clonazepam [Klonopin], diazepam [Valium], alprazolam [Xanax], lorazepam [Ativan]) prescribed with such impunity for agitation, anxiety, sleep, etc. I began to speculate that the new medication Valerie had started on “to calm her” was one of these and that, untested on her, it may have lowered her barriers against acting out her anger. Think of it as akin to becoming uncharacteristically violent when drunk, which happens in a small proportion of drinkers (we psychiatrists have a diagnosis for it: “pathological intoxication”); the effect on the CNS is very similar. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know in this case…
U&lc: Look at the Underside First: Crystal Inks. Bruce Sterling is writing for U&lc, the typography journal of the wonderful ITC font foundry. “U&lc” is “upper and lower case”, by the way.
Down at the bottom left of the page you’ll see this:
<>
I just joined the webloggers webring. You can navigate to other blogs in the ring as follows:
Do you more appreciate the digest function of this ‘blog (telling you what I’ve read so that you don’t have to) or the pointing function (suggesting what might be interesting for you to read)? In other words, should the posts generally be long or short?
Deliberations resume in trial of defendant in date rape drug death. Joshua Cole, 19, is accused of slipping gamma-hydroxybutyrate – GHB – into Samantha Reid’s glass during a party. She died on Jan. 17, 1999,
after being taken off of life support. The National Institute on Drug Abuse site on GHB and other club drugs is here.
Of course, the defendant could have used the argument from biological imperative. A Natural History of Rape : Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion by Randy Thornhill (University of New Mexico) and Craig T. Palmer (University of Colorado), takes an evolutionary perspective critical of the prevailing view that rape is a crime of violence and power. They suggest that sexual coercion evolved to increase the reproductive fitness of those men who would otherwise be poor competitors as mates, and that it was therefore selected for. The authors suggest that women dress conservatively and that school curriculums teach alternate ways to channel this natural urge. A review by two scientists, Jerry Coyne of Chicago and Andrew Berry of Harvard, in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Nature accuses the authors of scientific shabbiness. I agree.
New York woman charged after staking claim to thousands in bank error. The woman said she thought the mistaken $700,000 deposit, which occurred because her bank account number was one digit off from a United Nations account, was her winnings in a lottery. Her credit card records failed to substantiate her alleged lottery ticket purchases (Why didn’t she report having paid cash??)The deposits were made between February 1998 and October 1999 by the governments of France, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Namibia, Uruguay,
St. Kitts and Dominica, according to court papers. By the time the error was discovered last fall and the assets in the account frozen, only $450,000 remained. If convicted, she faces a maximum 30-yr sentence and a $1 million fine. (Let’s hope some of the missing funds were transferred to her attorney’s account as a retainer…) [Nando Times]
Mardi Gras ended, leaving New Orleans ankle-deep in trash. Officials plan to weigh the detritus deposited by the estimated 1.5 million revellers to see if it set a record. Tied as it is to the lunar calendar, Mardi Gras fell later than usual this year, and balmy weather encouraged the crowds.
There’s this scurrilous piece of psychiatric humor I get emailed to me, or psychiatric mailing lists in which I participate, with regularity, likening web use to a mental illness and “diagnosing” it in DSM-IV terms. May not be so scurrilous. Caught in the web: UF/Cincinnati study shows internet addicts suffer from mental illness. Twenty interviewees self-selected because their web use was problematic — with problems including marital strife or loss, work or school failure, going without sleep, shirking family responsibility, isolation, and consequent social and legal consequences — were found to have a variety of diagnosable psychiatric problems. “Every study participant’s Internet use met established diagnostic criteria for the family of psychiatric
illnesses known as impulse control disorders, which include kleptomania, a recurrent failure to resist impulses to shoplift, and
trichotillomania, the recurrent pulling out of one’s hair…” Most qualified as well for diagnosis with various other psychiatric disorders including manic depressive disorder, other psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, substance abuse problems, other impulse control disorders and eating disorders. Participants described spending over 30 hrs./wk. online in such puruits as chatrooms and MUDs. (When you think about it, as internet use becomes more pervasive, people with psychiatric illnesses will of course be a segment of those online. Why would we anticipate that their web use would be any less difficult for them than other spheres of their life? Indeed, the convenience and anonymity of use make it so attractive that pathological web use may become disproportionate.)
